Walk in the Park: Eastside - Birmingham's first new park for 130 years

DESPITE the worst spring and start to a summer in living memory, work on Birmingham’s new park is bang on target.

DESPITE the worst spring and start to a summer in living memory, work on Birmingham’s new park is bang on target.

It’s the first such amenity to have been built in the city since Highgate Park... 130 years ago.

And, as befits such a landmark project, it is still expected to be completed in November.

After a soft opening in December, it will then have a more celebratory unveiling in March, possibly in conjunction with St Patrick’s Day.

The site has long been earmarked for a new park, but a combination of financial constraints and plans for HS2 to fill the neighbouring Curzon Park almost saw it cancelled.

Greenlit after a re-design saw the budget more than halved to £11.75 million, the land has been a hive of activity since the early days of spring.

To start my visit, I enjoyed the privilege of having a bird’s-eye view of the luxury Hotel La Tour, from where you can see how Millennium Point (2000), Eastside (2012) and the envisaged HS2 site will one day sit side by side.

I was then given a ground-level tour by the two men in charge of its completion – Aidan Smith, project manager for Wates Construction, and Jim Wilson, the city council’s project manager for planning and regeneration.

Aidan, who left Archbishop Ilsley School at the age of 16 to become a joiner and carpenter, has been running the Eastside job after masterminding completion of the Cube.

Likewise, for Jim, the nature of the work at Eastside is also radically different to his previous work with housing.

Both men have had to learn about the practicalities of creating a park in an urban environment – including sourcing the best, appropriate trees and making sure the foundations are right.

Underground, there’s a special floodwater system and the soil is being specially manufactured in Derbyshire.

A stepped area will enable people to watch small to medium-sized events – though nothing on the scale of the day JLS were due to appear on the old block-paving area in 2009 when more than 60 people suffered crush injuries.

Father-of-four Aidan says: “The difference between this project and the Cube is ten-fold. I’ve become really interested in how and when you can plant shrubs and trees.

“We are working to achieve the quality the city deserves – HS2 will make this side of the city truly amazing.”

Eastside, which will also be next to Thinktank’s newly-opened Science Garden and a forthcoming under sevens area, will have two park keepers.

Jim says: “If there is any graffiti, for example, it will be removed within a day. They will soon learn it’s not worth bothering to do it.”